Microsoft and BlackRock launch GAIIP to spend money on AI information facilities and vitality

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the company's Build developer conference in Seattle on May 21, 2024.

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Microsoft And BlackRock are part of a group of companies working together to raise up to $100 billion to develop artificial intelligence data centers and the energy infrastructure to run them.

The companies are part of the Global Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP), announced in a press release on Tuesday. The other participants are Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), an infrastructure investor being acquired by BlackRock, and MGX, a technology investor in the United Arab Emirates.

“We are committed to using AI to drive innovation and fuel growth across all sectors of the economy,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. He said the initiative brings “financial and industry leaders together to build the infrastructure of the future and power it in a sustainable way.”

The group aims to raise initial capital of $30 billion and aims to raise up to $100 billion in the future, including through debt financing.

Technology companies are racing to build data centers with NVIDIA Graphics processing units, or GPUs, that can run generative AI models, such as those that power OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot. These GPUs consume a lot of power, and increasing demand has created a bottleneck in the construction of new facilities.

Microsoft's investment comes on top of investments needed to build out infrastructure for the Azure public cloud that serves OpenAI and other AI customers. Microsoft said in July that investments in the fiscal fourth quarter, including assets acquired under capital leases, totaled $19 billion.

In January, BlackRock announced it would acquire GIP for $3 billion in cash and approximately 12 million shares of BlackRock common stock. Last week, BlackRock said it expected the deal to close on October 1.

MGX was launched in March with Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala and AI company G42 as founding partners.

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